[plug] Issues with logging in users authenticated from database

[Tim]

As some of you may be aware, we are moving the plug server to a new
machine. As part of the process, we need to migrate the user database
that is in postgresql, and that libnss and pam authenticate from.

As far as I'm aware, I have everything correct now  (no more segfaults
at least).

But I have created 2 test users now, and while I can run certain
commands as the user, I can't login as the user or run many other
commands.
For example. su linuxalientest -c 'ls -la /tmp' works.
$ su linuxalientest -c 'ls -la /tmp'
drwxrwxrwt  4 root root 4096 2009-08-21 14:25 .
drwxr-xr-x 24 root root 4096 2009-08-19 22:24 ..
drwxrwxrwt  2 root root 4096 2009-08-20 20:34 .ICE-unix
drwxrwxrwt  2 root root 4096 2009-08-20 20:34 .X11-unix

but as the other test user, just sits there doing nothing.
$ su test1 -c 'ls -la /tmp'

attempting to login or ssh just times out with what appears to be the
starting shell part. Even su linuxalientest -c 'bash' times out.

ps aux|grep test1
root      6921  1.6  0.1  10708  3816 ?        Ss   11:23   0:00 sshd:
test1 [priv]
test1     6930  0.1  0.1  10660  2476 ?        S    11:23   0:00 sshd:
test1 at pts/18
test1     6934  0.1  0.1   9036  2620 pts/18   Ss+  11:23   0:00 -zsh

$ getent passwd test1
test1:x:10303:10303:Test Test,,,:/home/test1:/usr/bin/zsh
$ getent passwd linuxalientest
linuxalientest:x:10302:10302:Tim Test White,,,:/home/linuxalientest:/bin/bash

linuxalien at un:~$ getent group |grep test1
test1::10303:test1
linuxalien at un:~$ getent group |grep linuxalientest
linuxalientest::10302:linuxalientest

$ ls -l /home
<snip>
drwxr-xr-x 2 linuxalientest linuxalientest 4096 2009-08-20 21:57 linuxalientest
drwxr-xr-x 2 test1          test1          4096 2009-08-14 21:42 test1
<snip>

I know it has to be something with ether pam/nss or actually to do
with the users details once logged in (permissions or something?) but
I'm a little at a loss as to what it is.

Any suggestions?

Tim

-- 
Timothy White - Somewhere in Australia